


News for you, asshole

by laheysmythes



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Frenemies, M/M, a couple punches here and there, canon compliant up to the promo for 6x18, liam will have to buy new shirts for sure too, lowkey angst with a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 13:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12082236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laheysmythes/pseuds/laheysmythes
Summary: If there was something Theo was thankful for was Liam’s obliviousness. He hadn’t appreciated it as much before, but ever since Liam asked him why he was always trying to save him, and kept on asking him repeatedly, he felt he shouldn’t have taken it for granted.Or alternatively, 3 times Liam asked Theo why he kept saving his life but got no response, and the one time he got an answer.





	News for you, asshole

**Author's Note:**

> Briefly inspired by the iconic quote on IASIP where Dennis loses his shit after living with Mac for a month and yells at him "Newsflash asshole!" (10/10 stars, would recommend watching), because this is the only way I picture Theo finally admitting he cares for Liam, because apparently someone has to drag it out of him or else he'd stay mute.
> 
> Also because he was so avoiding answering Liam's question last episode and kept staring at him, oh my god.

If there was something Theo was thankful for was Liam’s obliviousness. He hadn’t appreciated it as much before, but ever since Liam asked him why he was always trying to save him, and kept on asking _repeatedly,_ he felt he shouldn’t have taken it for granted.

The first time Liam asked him in the locker room, it had taken him by surprise. Hell, he hadn’t given much thought to it, it had become a habit, something that by whatever weird reason he felt he _needed_ to do, no matter how many times he threatened to leave Liam to fend for himself.

Thankfully, Gabe spoke, and the question was forgotten, but that night Theo stayed awake a bit longer for a different reason that didn't involve nightmares of getting his heart ripped out of his chest several times.

 

* * *

Next time Liam asks, it doesn’t take him by surprise anymore, but still makes him feel uneasy. They were walking around in the forest, trying to track Aaron unsuccessfully, when Liam almost fell into a hunter trap in the ground. Theo’s reflexes were quicker than Liam’s apparently, and he managed to grab Liam by the back of his shirt, hard enough to have ripped some holes in it with his claws, but at least he didn’t fall.

“You ripped my shirt again, what the hell!” Liam complained once he was safe away from the trap.

“Sorry for not have taken into consideration your shirt, next time I’ll make sure to drop you into the trap,” Theo retorted back with more snark than necessary.

“I had seen the trap already, you didn’t have to save me like always,” Liam’s heart skipped a beat, which Theo picked up on, and snorted.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Theo said with a smirk, avoiding answering the implied question once again, and kept walking, Liam trailing up behind, being extra careful with looking at the ground.

 

* * *

 

It didn’t take more than two days for Theo to be saving Liam, _again._

This time it was during school hours. Liam was lacking the little self-control he had to not shift in public thanks to the fear and anger mixture that the Anuk-ite was responsible for.

The teacher who had done nothing to stop Gabe and Nolan from attacking him in the classroom had just failed Liam out of prejudice, because she knew he was a werewolf. Liam’s pulse was rising, getting angrier and angrier slowly as the teacher kept explaining whatever bullshit reason she had to fail him.

Theo kept hearing how Liam’s pulse kept spiking as minutes passed, and decided to interfere before Liam regretted doing something that could potentially get him shot. It was Beacon Hills after all, a place where at this rate anyone could be carrying a gun loaded with wolfsbane-laced bullets.

“Mrs. Finch, excuse me, can I talk to Liam for a second?” Theo interrupted the class as polite as he could manage, and Liam was shocked to see him. Gabe and Nolan shifted uncomfortably in their seats too.

“We are in the middle of class. It is not permitted for a student to leave the classroom unless they have a note from the principal’s office or the guidance counselor-” the teacher started lecturing Theo, but he wasn’t taking no for an answer, especially in a critical situation like this.

“Didn’t you fail him already anyway?” Theo rhetorically asked, leaving Mrs. Finch with her mouth wide open, unsure on what to reply to the comment. “Grab your bag, _we’re leaving._ ”

In a couple of seconds, Liam and Theo were out of the classroom and on their way to the school’s parking lot.

“It’s your lucky day, guess you have no choice but the skip the rest of your classes,” Theo told him while grabbing Liam’s backpack and throwing it in the trunk of his pick-up truck.

“What the hell are you doing here?! You just made everything worse!” Liam was starting to freak out, _badly._ Theo was thankful that werewolves couldn’t read minds because he was mostly sure that Liam was spinning out of control with worst-case scenarios.

“You’re welcome too, if I hadn’t walked into that classroom, you’d have ripped that teacher to shreds!” Theo’s voice got higher.

“ _Why do you care?!_ ” Liam said with a higher amount of desperation and anxiety than he usually had. He let out an angry yell, followed by a punch directed to Theo’s truck.

“Stop smearing blood on my truck you stupid idiot!” Theo replied, mostly because he didn’t know how else to reply, and insulting each other seemed normal. And right now, for the sake of everyone in the near perimeter, Liam needed normal.

Reluctantly, Liam got into the passenger seat after a while, and he might’ve closed the door with a little bit more strength than intended.

 

* * *

 

Theo was the kind of person who always had their emotions under control and was able to think tactically instead of irrationally. He wasn’t one to lose his temper often, and that took him years to master.

There was only one person who managed to tear to shreds whatever control he had, and that person was Liam. The guy managed to get under his skin in a way nobody had before, and he didn’t know if it should be considered a good thing, or a bad thing. Most people would call it a weakness, for a certain person to be responsible for making you lose your calm and control. Caring was a weakness too, especially during a war, because that is how people can get to you without having to hurt you physically. 

Which is why Theo couldn’t come to terms on how to answer Liam’s question. For his own peace of mind, he couldn’t. For the sake of retaining whatever control he had over his life, he couldn't. For the sake of Liam’s safety, he couldn't. 

After having spent an entire day with Mason trying to track down Aaron, and having to save Mason’s life because it was ‘the right thing to do’ (according to whatever conscience he had developed during his time in Hell- although, why does that little voice in his head sounded awfully a lot like Liam’s?), he was now in the library, trying to track down Liam since Scott said they both had gone their separate ways.

Now, Theo didn’t know how much Scott knew about Liam’s current lack of control, but he knew that Liam would need backup to not get himself killed, or alternatively, to not kill someone. So off he went to the library. 

It didn’t took him long enough to find him, since Liam was on his merry way to attack two amateur hunters, whose weapons were currently discarded on the floor, broken, and they honestly looked terrified as hell.

Liam was standing on top of a table, ready to jump and scratch their faces off, when Theo jumped him from the side, pushing him to the floor and pinning him down to restrain him.

“Run!” He yelled at the teenagers, his eyes glowing yellow and fangs coming out. They seemed to be frozen in place, not processing the fact that they needed to leave in that very moment. Theo rolled his eyes. “Run, and don’t you dare to call for any backup because I will help him in _killing_ you both!”

That empty threat did the trick, because they both run scared as hell out of the library. Back to the matter at hand, Liam was trying his hardest to break out of Theo’s grip to the point where he had sunk his claws into Theo’s arms, but he resisted though the pain.

“Liam, snap out of it!” Theo yelled at him, but he only got an angry growl in response.

“Let me. GO!” Liam managed to break free from one hand and landed a punch to Theo’s face, making him lose his balance and fall to the side. It seemed like Liam had now focused all his anger into Theo.

The scene seemed oddly familiar to that one time in the library, during a supermoon, when Liam had completely lost control and had attacked Scott because of- well, Theo knew it was his fault, but he tried to not dwell on it too much. However, it felt ironically fitting. He was well aware this was karma being a bitch and coming to collect its debt.

Liam grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him, hard, on the floor, pinning him now to it. “Why did you stop me?”

“We both know you aren’t cut to kill somebody,” Theo said and Liam punched him again, making him spit blood. “So, can you please do us all a favor and stop going on attempted killing sprees, I’m getting real tired of having to stop you-”

“NOBODY IS ASKING YOU TO!” Liam yelled, and it truly shocked Theo. He had seen him angry, but this was a whole new level of angry. “Why don’t you leave Beacon Hills and save your ass from dying again? _Why are you still saving me?_ It’s not like you care for anyone but yourself.”

Theo really was a calm, cold, and calculating person. He really was. Him losing his temper and admitting to things he had agreed were better off buried deep, _deep_ into his mind, up to the point of denial, was a thing he hadn’t really done before, except for one time and it got him sent to Hell afterwards.

So for Theo to say the things he said next meant that Liam had completely pushed him over the line.

“Well, I got news for you, _asshole_!” Liam got taken aback by the sudden reply and the angry, desperate tone Theo was using. Theo took the opportunity then to punch Liam back in the face as payback, and pin him down, _again._ “I’ve been caring about you this entire goddamn time!”

Miraculously, it had calmed Liam down. Slowly, he was starting to breathe better, and some of the anger was being replaced with confusion. On the other hand, Theo was the one who had become unhinged.

“Then why didn’t you say something?” This was the better thing Liam could come up with, because he still couldn’t process the information. Theo… _caring about him?_ Repeatedly saving him from life-threatening situations, even if it meant there was a chance he would die too and go back to Hell? It was too much to take in at once.

“BECAUSE I HATE YOU!” Theo yelled out, dragging the e in ‘hate’ to express his rage. He let go of Liam’s shirt, which he realized he had left holes in it from holding it too tight, but he couldn't care less at the moment. He got up without looking at Liam and went to the other side of the library to calm himself down.

Liam was sprawled on the floor of the library, extremely confused. He had reverted back to his human form, panting from the fight. Despite Theo’s anger, he sounded sincere, and this is a new side that Liam was seeing on him. It unsettled him, because he had grown accustomed to hating the guy, that he hadn’t realized how much he had been relying on him the past couple of weeks, and most importantly, how, in some way, he had begin to actually trust him. And it was scary as hell, because that meant it would change their dynamic. Would they be friends? _Frenemies_? Was there a term to describe this unusual type of dynamic they had?

Liam made his way carefully to the side of the library where Theo was at, seeing how there were some books lying on the floor that had clearly been pushed off the shelves out of anger. Liam might’ve had good intentions, but he certainly lacked tact to ask questions in trying times like this one. 

“Are you okay?” Liam asked, quietly, and Theo sarcastically laughed.

“No, I am _not_ okay, asshole. I’m far from okay, and since we’re being honest here, no, I do _not_ know in what moment I started to care whether you lived or died, considering that you sometimes have the grace to annoy me enough to get me _this_ angry- angry enough to consider pushing you into a hole and leaving you there until this war is over just so you won’t get us both killed in the process,” Theo continued to go off, although he was a bit calmer now.

Liam didn’t know how to respond to this, it was uncharted territory now, and during a time like this, they couldn't just sit down and figure out what this all meant. One thing was sure, and that was that no matter what, Theo cared enough to save him several times, and would most likely keep doing it, despite what his self-preservation instincts tell him.

“Thank you?” It sounded more like a soft question, and Liam made an awkwardly confused face, because months ago he wouldn’t have thought he’d be thanking Theo for anything, _and yet_ here they are.

Theo was dumbfounded at the response. “You are unbelievable sometimes, you know that?”

He kept shaking his head but made his way out of the library, calmer now. Liam was following behind, a warm feeling he couldn’t pinpoint running through his body, a small smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest I feel like their first kiss would kind of go along these lines too, but they need a bit of more time, but that's neither here nor there, just an afterthought (and a possible follow-up drabble I might write, just saying).


End file.
